Matt Damon Re-Bourne
Nobody in Hollywood would argue that Matt Damon is an A-lister — except maybe the humble Matt himself. "It's weird to talk about my career in terms of success," says the Bourne Supremacy star. "Really recently, before The Bourne Identity came out, I hadn't been offered a movie in a year. The Legend of Bagger Vance and All The Pretty Horse had come out and bombed.
"The word on The Bourne Identity was that it was also gonna tank, because we had pushed back the release date a couple of times," he continues. "So people went, 'Oh, that's a sign things aren't going well.' In fact, Universal gave us more money to go back, reshoot and make the movie a lot better. But the outward signals in the industry were that this was gonna suck!
"Nobody gave me any job offers for quite some time, so I went and did a play in London," Damon recalls. "We closed on a Saturday night and Bourne Identity had opened that [same weekend]. I got back [home] Monday morning, and there were 30 script offers!
"So any [showbiz] success I've had feels tenuous," Damon chuckles. "I don't think anyone feels secure."
Since Damon has another summer blockbuster on his hands, we'd say he can safely rest on his laurels for a bit. His big paychecks on the Bourne films were well earned, especially since the amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne is a dark role. "Normally, you'd have some scenes of levity [in action thrillers], but it was intense most of the way through," he says of the sequel. "One of the biggest acting challenges is the fact that I don't talk a lot in the movie. I only have about four scenes where I speak, but I'm on-screen for a lot of the movie! The good news is I got my requisite amount of laughter when I'd go home at night and talk on the phone and rejoin humanity."
